S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
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6 9
The 1980s
A D E S I G N F O R T E C H N O L O G I C A L C H A N G E
House Education Committee responsible for the tech system and
on the budget committee. Those two were influential folks in the
higher education service. I don’t remember who sent the third
letter.”
Sheheen was curious. Could Morris get Waddell and the Clo-
ver House member to withdraw their letters?
“I doubt it,” said Morris, “but turn your fax machine on and
fill it with paper.”
Morris and his staff called every tech college president that af-
ternoon and rallied the troops. The next morning, the chairman
of the Commission on Higher Education called the meeting to
order. “We have expressions of interest from some members of
the General Assembly. We’re going to take a 15-minute recess for
you to read those letters.”
“Something like 40 letters of support to three against came
in,” said Morris. “When the letters were distributed, the chan-
cellor of the two-year system and provost looked at each other:
‘Whoa, how did this happen?’ There were only supposed to be
three letters.”
On July 1, 1989, all sixteen colleges received authorization
to offer college transfer associate degrees. It was a hard-fought
victory.
“A lot of people feared this would take us away from the tech-
nical and career education emphasis,” said Morris. “We’re all
about job creation, but at the same time, people who can’t afford
the tuition at Carolina and other institutions of higher learning
need an opportunity locally before they transfer.”
CHANGING THE IMAGE
When the system authorized changing the old TECs to “col-
leges” in March 1974, the die was cast. “If you’re going to talk the
talk, you need to walk the walk.” As the former centers assumed
more of a college complexion, being more college-like gained
currency. Among the changes was a requirement: any person
becoming a president of one of the colleges had to have a doc-
torate. If you don’t have one, you will earn one—even the “boy
presidents.” Walking the walk also meant enhancing buildings
and campuses.
Dr. Jim Hudgins understood that. Prior to his tenure as sys-
tem president, Hudgins served as the president of Midlands
Technical College from 1986 to 1999. “I’m proud of what I did at
Midlands, and it will live long after I’m gone. First, we changed
the image and the appearance. We fixed up the grounds and the
buildings to look first-class. We built about eight new buildings.”
Enrollment grew. “At one time,” said Hudgins, “Midlands
was the state’s largest technical college. We bragged about it too
much, and Greenville’s Tom Barton sent down about five com-
mittees to find how we had done it. I decided that was a race I
didn’t want to participate in because we were more interested in
students’ success than being the biggest school in the state.”
Hudgins recalls the before and after of image enhancement.
“When I went to Midlands I asked where our high school stu-
dents come from and that year we had about fifteen students
from Irmo. About ten years later we had done some things to
change our image, and I asked for that same survey. We had 127
students who came from Irmo, just one student different than
1986 1989
1986:
For twenty-five years South Carolina’s technical colleges
have been inventing the future. Another twenty-five was on
the way. Midlands Technical College President James R. Morris, Jr.,
was named executive director.
1989:
All 16 technical college offered colleges
transfer associate degrees.
